Carrying out a risk assessment with OiRA
Starting a new session
From the dashboard
To start a new risk assessment from the homescreen, or ‘dashboard’ of OiRA, click on ‘Start a new session’. A dialogue panel will appear with two different options for starting your assessment.
Starting a risk assessment from scratch
Use this option to start with a clean template when you are doing your risk assessment for the first time. You can choose a tool from the tool dropdown to guide you through the assessment.
Base on an existing risk assessment
Use this option if you have already made a risk assessment with a certain tool before. You can select an existing risk assessment that you would like to reuse from the risk assessment dropdown, to use it as a base for a new risk assessment. Reusing a risk assessment makes sense when not much has changed, e.g. when you only have to update the answers to some questions or specific parts of the action plan.
When choosing this option a duplicate is created of the selected previous risk assessment. Duplicates of locked risk assessments are by default unlocked.
From the tools page
You can also start a risk assessment with a tool of your choice from the tools overview page and also from an individual tool page. Click ‘Start risk assessment’ for this option. Via this route you may also choose between starting a new risk assessment from scratch, or to base it on a previous assessment. Only risk assessments that were made with the same tool will appear in the assessment’s dropdown. If you have never made a risk assessment with the selected tool before, then a new risk assessment will start immediately when you click ‘Start risk assessment’.
Opening a risk assessment
Once you have started a risk assessment, you can retrieve it at any time through the dashboard under the heading ‘My risk assessments’. From here you can also start a new risk assessment.
Navigating a risk assessment
Each risk assessment guides you through several steps. They are visible in the main menu on the left side of the screen:
- Preparation
- Involvement
- Identification + Evaluation
- Action plan
- Report
- Status
Depending on decisions taken by the OiRA partners/tool developers, the structure of each tool can vary. In some tools, the risk identification and evaluation step includes the action plan. In this case, the menu on the left appears as follows:
- Preparation
- Involvement
- Assessment
- Report
- Status
Preparation
‘Preparation’ is where you start each session/tool. It is where you give the risk assessment a name that will later help you distinguish between several different risk assessments you have carried out with the tool.
The link ‘Learn more about this tool…’ provides further information on the selected tool and the parties involved in its development.
After clicking ‘Start’, some additional questions may be asked, depending on the tool you are using. This preparatory screen with ‘profile questions’ appears only with tools that offer this option.
Here you can:
- Select or skip situation(s) depending on whether they apply to your business activity. Choose ‘yes’ where appropriate.
- List multiple business units, branches or stores, and so on. The related risks will be repeated for each entry.
The preparation step is very important as it accurately defines the type of business and the related risks your company deals with. After clicking ‘Save and continue’ you will be led to the next section, ‘Involvement’.
Note: Many tools do not have profile questions as they do not use this feature for targeting the tool. In this case, this screen is automatically skipped.
Involvement
This step is a reminder of the importance of worker involvement and presents different ways to ensure good worker involvement. Here you can download or print the contents of the risk assessment for sharing with your workers/employees. This ensures that workers are able to contribute to the task of assessing the situation at their workplace.
Assessment
In this step you will identify hazards and problems relevant to your company.
Note: Depending on how the tool was configured by the OiRA partner, the ‘Action plan’ step (see below) may be integrated into this screen. In this case, the whole step is called ‘Assessment’, and the elements described under ‘Action plan’ will appear under the identification and evaluation of each risk.
On the left of the screen, below ‘Identification + Evaluation’/‘Assessment’, you can see each of the topics/modules included in the tool. The topic you are currently viewing is highlighted.
Identification
For each risk, you have to decide if the statement describing a desired state applies to your company. You can respond as follows:
- Yes: if you respond to the statement with ‘yes’, no further action is needed, as you have assessed the risk as not present.
- No: if you respond to the statement with ‘no’, further action has to be taken. You will be asked to decide on specific measures.
- Not applicable: some risk statements give the option of selecting ‘not applicable’ if the risk is not relevant to your company/establishment.
Below each statement there is usually more information on the specific risk:
- Information: a short description, sometimes with accompanying images, providing more details about the risk.
- Resources: additional information about the risk, such as legal and policy references. Sometimes you can also find documents attached here for further reading.
- Comments: you can put your own comments here, which will appear in your report at the end of the assessment.
After responding to a risk statement and proceeding, the menu on the left will be updated with a coloured symbol to indicate whether you have:
- answered positively (green tick)
- answered negatively (red cross)
- postponed (orange question mark)
For unanswered questions, the grey symbol remains.
Evaluation
In this step you evaluate the priority of a risk that you have identified.
Note: In some OiRA tools, the evaluation is not shown. This depends on how the national partner/OiRA tool developer has set up its particular OiRA tool.
If you have identified a risk as being present (shown by a red cross), the section for evaluation will appear. Depending on the evaluation method set for each risk, you will be asked to:
- estimate the priority: high, medium or low
OR
- answer a few questions about the frequency, the severity and the probability of the risk, so that the priority can be calculated based on your answers.
Priority risks set by the sector:
Some risks are considered very important by the national partner/tool developer who created the specific OiRA tool. You are not required to estimate such ‘priority risks’, as their priority will automatically be set to ‘high’.
Custom risks
After you have finished answering all risk topics under ‘Identification + Evaluation’/‘Assessment’, you will arrive at the optional topic ‘Other risks’. Here, the button ‘Add a custom risk’ lets you create your own entries.
If there are risks missing in the tool that are present at your workplace/in your company, you need to add them here. These risks can be completely defined/phrased by you.
A ‘custom risk’ works in a very similar way to the risks provided by the OiRA tool, but obviously you need to write your own text. This text should at least be a short statement that describes a problematic situation, with the option of a longer description. You can also upload an image for illustrating a certain situation.
As with the regular risks, you need to state whether the risk is present or not. This will allow you to tick off the custom risks once you have dealt with them successfully, but keep them in your risk assessment for documentation purposes.
You can add as many custom risks as you need.
Action plan
In this step, you decide on the measures that you want to implement to eliminate or mitigate the risks that you have previously identified.
Note: As mentioned above, the action plan is presented as a separate step in the menu on the left or appears under each identified risk. In the latter case, the step in the menu is called ‘Assessment’ and includes both the risk statements and a choice of responses.
Which version you are provided with depends on decisions taken by the national OiRA partner/tool developer.
Integrated action plan
If you answer a question with ‘no’, then the action plan module will unfold on the page, under the heading ‘Measures’.
You can both select from a list of measures proposed by the system and define your own measures.
Separate action plan
Click the button ‘Create action plan’ to start your plan.
In the action plan step, the menu on the left now only shows the risks marked for further action, as the other risks were ticked as not being present.
For each risk answered ‘no’ during the evaluation process and for priority risks (regardless of whether they were answered positively or negatively) you will be asked to define measures.
You can either select from a list of measures suggested by the system or define your own measures.
Add your own measure
Use the button ‘Add a measure’ to start defining a preventive measure. You should:
- Describe the general approach that will be taken to eliminate or reduce the risk.
- Optionally state the level of expertise and/or requirements needed (e.g. here you can add if specific training or external expertise is needed to deal with this risk)
- Enter information on who is responsible for the implementation.
- Define a budget, if applicable.
- Optionally set dates for when to start implementing the measure and when you plan to complete it.
You can add as many measures as needed.
Add standard measures
Depending on how the OiRA partner/tool developer has set up the tool, predefined measures are available for individual risks. To choose one or more predefined measures, click the button ‘Select standard measures’.
A pop-up menu opens that displays all the suggested measures. Click the ‘Add’ button for the ones that you want to use.
The predefined measures are then listed in your action plan. The description of what to do is fixed, but the other fields (responsibility, budget, dates) can and should be filled in by you.
Both standard measures and measures defined by you can be deleted again at any point.
Consultancy
You have the option to request assistance in completing a risk assessment or to have a risk analysis performed by you and validated by an OSH consultant. An OSH consultant can give your risk assessment an offical validation mark.
Adding a consultant to your organisation
To get a validation for your assessment you need to give a consultant access to your risk assessments.
You can grant a consultant access to your risk assessments by adding the consultant as a user with access level ‘Validate’ to your organisation. Learn more about giving people access to your risk assessments in the topic User management.
Requesting a validation
Once your consultant has access to your risk assessments, go to the section ‘Consultancy’ of your risk assessment and press the button ‘Request validation’.
If more than one consultant has access to your risk assessments then choose the consultant you want to invite to validate your assessment and click ‘Send validation request’. The application will now send an e-mail to the consultant, inviting him or her to validate your risk assessment.
The consultancy tab will now show “This risk assessment is currently under review by …” until the consultant has done the validation.
When the consultant has validated the risk assessment, you will receive an e-mail reporting this. The consultancy tab will now indicate that the risk assessment has been validated.
The risk assessment is now locked from further editing so that it can keep its protected validated status.
Should you want to make any changes to the risk assessment after validation, then you will need to unlock the risk assessment which will make it lose its validation status. You can at any time safely create a duplicate of a locked risk assessment and edit the duplicate. Learn more about duplication. Bear in mind that requesting a new validation might involve extra cost.
Training
The ´Preparing Training Material´ feature is designed to help you generating training content as you undertake a risk assessment. The following instructions will guide you on how to best use this feature:
Automatic creation of training material
As you conduct a risk assessment, the system simultaneously compiles training material in the background. This ensures that every risk assessment is coupled with corresponding training resources.
Accessing the training section
Under each risk there is a section ‘Training’. If this section is not automatically expanded, you can click on the little arrow to show the full content.
Editing the training material
Within the training section, you find the specific measures related to that risk. Each measure can be marked as relevant material for the training of your colleagues or employees. To select or unselect a measure to show or not show in the training material, click on the eye icon adjacent to each measure. By default all measures are included in the training material.
The training material includes the following items:
- Already implemented measures: These are the preventive measures that have already been put into practice to mitigate the risk.
- Additional measures: These are any extra preventive measures that were chosen to manage the risk.
- Information section: The information associated with each risk that provides details about its nature and potential impacts.
- Notes: If there are any notes pertaining to a specific risk, these can be optionally included in the training material for additional context or insights.
By choosing the respective measures you can ensure a personalised training experience for your employees.
Report
After finalising the risk assessment and its action plan, you can produce a report.
If you want to leave a comment to be included in the report, type your text here and save it.
See here to read more about the different reports and how to use them.
Status
The small pie chart in the menu on the left shows you the progress you have made with the tool.
The status section provides an overview of how many risks you have identified, how many of them you have addressed by deciding on measures, and how many risks/statements you have still not responded to.
When you enter the status screen, you can see how far you have progressed in each module. This can help you note where you still need to assess risks or provide measures for those risks that you have identified.
Locking a risk assessment
If you have reached a stage where your risk assessment is considered finalised, it might be helpful to communicate this to the rest of your organisation. One way to do so in the tool is by locking the risk assessment. Follow the steps below to lock a risk assessment:
- Open a risk assessment, ensuring it is active on any page that is not ‘Training’ or ‘Settings’.
- On the toolbar, click on the lock icon .
- A menu will appear. From this menu, select ‘Lock risk assessment’.
Upon completing these steps, your risk assessment is immediately locked, which is made visible by the locking icon now showing as closed .